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- From: HADY@ERS.BITNET (TOM HADY)
- Newsgroups: bit.listserv.history
- Subject: Re: Causes of famine.
- Message-ID: <HISTORY%92111816034096@PSUVM.PSU.EDU>
- Date: 18 Nov 92 20:56:33 GMT
- Sender: History <HISTORY@PSUVM.BITNET>
- Lines: 22
- Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
- In-Reply-To: Message of Wed,
- 18 Nov 1992 12:12:00 GMT from <ECNROBINSON@ORBSEN. UCG.IE>
-
- I haven't read Sen, but from the passage you quote it sounds as
- if he is mainly saying that absent worldwide famine, famines are
- a manifestation of the personal (or regional) distribution of
- income. To an economist (a species to which I belong), the
- argument makes sense. Potato disease increases the demand for
- non-self-produced food by farmers, to the extent (large in C19
- Ireland, I'd assume) that they grow their own food.
- Simultaneously, if they sell spuds for cash, it cuts their income
- and therefore their ability to buy alternative food. If they
- don't have alternative sources of income (move to the city or
- America, raise other crops, dole, etc.), they're in trouble.
- Moving beyond that, there are other market issues. Did Ireland
- have the remaining foreign trade capability (things to export) to
- be able to import enough food? All of that is basically saying
- that there was enough food, but it wasn't distributed "right."
- But economics has to stop somewhere: it seems to me you need to
- start investigating the political and social institutions that
- shape the market institutions.
-
- --TOM HADY, National Economy & History Branch, Economic Research Service
- U. S. Dept. of Agriculture -- Voice: 202-219-0780 Fax: 202-219-0202
- BITNET: HADY@ERS INTERNET: HADY@ERS.BITNET
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